Their intentions: -to cultivate the earth by growing fresh organic vegetables -to cultivate ourselves by tending to the well-being of body and mind, soul, and spirit -to cultivate society by creating a microcosm of mutuality, simplicity, generosity, and love

What they do: -grow and give away food, seedlings, and garden supplies to those who are in need -offer garden, environmental, wellness education -facilitate diverse spiritual practices -advocate for environmental, climate, and food justice -practice hospitality and host community events

Sunday, February 17, 2013

The simple act of planting a garden can shape issues like
economics, health, and politics at the same time because food is an
essential focal point of human activity. As the urban farming movement
grows, here are five ways that it will transform our world.

1. Renewed local economies. Local
neighbor-to-neighbor commerce generally doesn’t happen in our
communities. Residential areas almost never include common spaces where
community exchanges might happen. Likewise, because selling homemade
bread to your neighbors is illegal in most areas, the law discourages
community commerce, and instead encourages you to purchase from the
supermarket chain.

In my own community, the urban farming
movement has reinvigorated local commerce. Instead of buying oranges, I
now trade pumpkin for oranges from my neighbor’s tree. If urban farming
continued to grow, it would cause a massive and positive economic
disruption by introducing local food production that would compete with
the corporate mainstream on price, quality, convenience, and level of
service.

2. Environmental stewardship. Industrial
agriculture is a major source of fossil fuel pollution. Petrochemicals
are used to fertilize, spray, and preserve food. Plastics made from oil
are used to package the food, and gasoline is used to transport food
worldwide. Urban farming unplugs us from oil by minimizing the transport
footprint and using organic cultivation methods.

While
industrial agriculture often maneuvers to avoid paying for environmental
externalities, urban farmers directly bear the ecological costs of
their actions. This makes urban farmers better stewards of their land
because they draw their nutrition from it. Rather than using chemicals
that destroy soil biology, urban farming culture stresses sustainable
organic techniques that enrich the topsoil.

3. A focus on local politics.
Urban farming makes it clearer and easier for people to be involved in
local politics by bringing issues that directly affect neighborhoods to
the fore. Local regulations become far more relevant to the day-to-day
life of a person attempting to cultivate their own food than most issues
normally discussed on CNN. The growth of urban farming has already
resulted in large-scale legal pushes like the California Cottage Food
Act, which will allow people to legally sell certain homemade goods like
jams and breads. Other neighborhood issues such as the raising of
chickens, beekeeping for the production of honey, or the chlorination of
water are already in the sights of urban farmers and environmentalists
alike.

4. A revolution of health and nutrition. Increased
awareness about the negative health effects of food from the industrial
food chain is itself a big reason why urban farmers grow their own
food. When you feed your produce to your family, you’re less likely to
douse it in poisons. Local food has more freshness, flavor, and nutrient retention
because it goes through less transportation and processing. As the
urban farming movement grows, it will mean more accessibility to
nutritious local food and more time spent doing the healthy physical
work of gardening. This could result in less obesity, less chronic
disease, and decreased healthcare spending.

5. A flowering of community interaction. Urban
farming is a lifestyle inherently centered on community. Growing food
is, after all, a cooperative effort. In my own community, I see that the
knowledge of how and what to grow is exchanged, seeds are swapped,
labor is shared, and the harvest is traded. As urban farming grows, a
stronger interdependence within communities is likely to result as local
food systems bring more community interaction into people’s daily
lives.

The most important movement of our time. Although
there are many other notable initiatives today, the influence of urban
farming is uniquely widespread because more people live in cities than
rural areas and food is a central necessity that affects everything at
once. The seeds of change are already being planted in homes like mine
across the world. For these seeds to grow and blossom, we need to demand
more local food so that the market for urban-grown produce expands. We
also need to put pressure on our legal system to allow easier local
trade and more local food production.

Imagine if we grew food
instead of grass. Every community is a local food economy waiting to
come to life. The answer to climate change, the health crisis, and the
recession economy is right outside your door. I’ll meet you at the
garden fence.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Creating communities that are compatible with nature's processes for sustaining life requires basic ecological knowledge.

We
need, says Center for Ecoliteracy cofounder Fritjof Capra, to teach our
children — and our political and corporate leaders — fundamental facts
of life:

Matter cycles continually through the web of life.

Most of the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun.

Diversity assures resilience.

One species' waste is another species' food.

Life did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.

NATURE'S PATTERNS AND PROCESSES

Understanding
these facts arises from understanding the patterns and processes by
which nature sustains life. In its work with teachers and schools, the
Center for Ecoliteracy has identified several of the most important of
these. It has helped teachers identify places in the curriculum where
students can learn about them.

NetworksAll
living things in an ecosystem are interconnected through networks of
relationship. They depend on this web of life to survive. For example:
In a garden, a network of pollinators promotes genetic diversity;
plants, in turn, provide nectar and pollen to the pollinators.

Nested SystemsNature
is made up of systems that are nested within systems. Each individual
system is an integrated whole and—at the same time — part of larger
systems. Changes within a system can affect the sustainability of the
systems that are nested within it as well as the larger systems in which
it exists. For example: Cells are nested within organs within organisms
within ecosystems.

CyclesMembers
of an ecological community depend on the exchange of resources in
continual cycles. Cycles within an ecosystem intersect with larger
regional and global cycles. For example: Water cycles through a garden
and is also part of the global water cycle.

FlowsEach
organism needs a continual flow of energy to stay alive. The constant
flow of energy from the sun to Earth sustains life and drives most
ecological cycles. For example: Energy flows through a food web when a
plant converts the sun's energy through photosynthesis, a mouse eats the
plant, a snake eats the mouse, and a hawk eats the snake. In each
transfer, some energy is lost as heat, requiring an ongoing energy flow
into the system.

DevelopmentAll
life — from individual organisms to species to ecosystems — changes
over time. Individuals develop and learn, species adapt and evolve, and
organisms in ecosystems coevolve. For example: Hummingbirds and
honeysuckle flowers have developed in ways that benefit each other; the
hummingbird's color vision and slender bill coincide with the colors and
shapes of the flowers.

Dynamic BalanceEcological
communities act as feedback loops, so that the community maintains a
relatively steady state that also has continual fluctuations. This
dynamic balance provides resiliency in the face of ecosystem change. For
example: Ladybugs in a garden eat aphids. When the aphid population
falls, some ladybugs die off, which permits the aphid population to rise
again, which supports more ladybugs. The populations of the individual
species rise and fall, but balance within the system allows them to
thrive together.

The four guiding principles of the Center for Ecoliteracy's Smart by Nature™ framework, described in our book Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability, have many implications for educators, as seen in this excerpt.

1. NATURE IS OUR TEACHER

To
envision sustainable human communities, we look for lessons derived
from 3.8 billion years of natural research and development. We can model
human societies and institutions, including schools, after the patterns
and processes found in sustainable ecosystems, and learn from the
practices of traditional societies that have sustained themselves for
centuries. (Inviting nature to be our teacher does not mean turning
sentimental or softheaded about the beneficence of kindly Mother Nature;
this mother practices tough love, and teaches limits as well as
possibilities.)

Some consequences of accepting nature as our teacher:

Ecological literacy is at the center.
Understanding how nature sustains ecosystems requires basic ecological
knowledge. We need, says Fritjof Capra, to teach our children (and our
political and corporate leaders) fundamental facts of life. For example:

• Matter cycles continually through the web of life• The energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun• Diversity assures resilience• One species' waste is another species' food• Life did not take over the planet by combat but by networking

Integrating the curriculum.
Focusing on ecological principles integrates teaching across
disciplines and between grades — an antidote to the fragmentation and
narrowing that often result from standardized testing and state
mandates. Some teachers fear that teaching sustainability will just add
another responsibility onto overfull workloads. In fact, tying subjects
together in ways that make sense to students can make teaching more
rewarding.

Systems thinking. John Muir
famously wrote, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it
hitched to everything else in the Universe." In education we often try
to unhitch everything in order to study the separate parts. In fact,
individual "things" (plants, people, schools, watersheds, economies)
can't be fully understood apart from their larger systems, which means
thinking in terms of relationships, connectedness, and context.

In
systems thinking, emphases shift: from the parts to the whole, from
objects to relationships, from structures to process, from contents to
patterns. For instance, a nutrition lesson that tracks meals from farm
to cafeteria can map the relationships between food choices, the health
of local agriculture, the environmental costs of shipping food over
thousands of miles, and impacts on the livelihoods of farmers halfway
around the world.

Solving for pattern.
Author/farmer/philosopher Wendell Berry contrasts bad solutions — which
solve for single purposes and act destructively on the patterns in which
they are contained — with good solutions, which are in harmony with
their larger patterns and result in ramifying sets of solutions.
Farm-to-school programs, for example, beget other solutions: they
improve health, teach about nutrition, support small-scale farmers, and
keep money within the local economy. School districts planning new
buildings save resources, energy, and money through integrated design
processes in which educators, architects, engineers, and contractors
collaborate to create facilities whose parts work together as systems.

Healthy by nature.
It shouldn't be surprising that nature teaches solutions that fit human
bodies, which evolved for million years before industrialization.
Natural daylighting improves health and performance. Children surrounded
by more nature — even if just a view out a window — experience less
anxiety and depression and fewer behavioral conduct disorders. Fresh,
seasonal, unprocessed foods are better choices for school meals.
Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and other
problems improve rapidly when artificial coloring and preservatives are
removed from their diets.

2. SUSTAINABILITY IS A COMMUNITY PRACTICE

Many
ecological principles are variations on a single fundamental pattern:
nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. Animals,
plants, and microorganisms live in webs of mutual dependence. People
require each other for emotional as well as physical succor. Qualities
that keep natural ecosystems vibrant and resilient, such as diversity
and interdependence, shape healthier schools and other human communities
as well.

The community is a teacher. A healthy
network of relationships that includes all its members makes a
community more sustainable. When teachers, students, parents, trustees,
and other community members decide and act collaboratively, students
practice skills of leadership and community decision-making that they
will need in order to be effective agents of change.

Systems change.
Understanding change in living systems informs efforts to reform
schools, districts, and other social systems. Large-scale changes that
have great impact begin as small, local actions, says systems change
theorist Margaret Wheatley. "While they remain separate and apart, they
have no influence beyond their locale. However, if they become
connected, exchanging information and learning, their separate efforts
can suddenly emerge as very powerful changes, able to influence a large
system."

Nested systems. Schools nest within
local communities, economies, and ecosystems. David W. Orr proposes a
standard for designers that could apply to any nested system: Think
upstream to the wells, mines, forests, farms, and manufacturers from
which materials are drawn. Look downstream to the effects on the climate
and health of people and ecosystems. If there is ugliness at either
end, you cannot claim success, regardless of the artfulness of what you
make.

The "hidden curriculum." The "curriculum"
encompasses everywhere at the school that children learn. Schools teach
— whether consciously or not — by how they treat their neighbors,
invest their money, or provision themselves with food, energy,
materials, and transportation. Their actions demonstrate their
understanding of their relationship with the rest of the world, their
regard for students and their health, and what they really believe about
sustainability.

3. THE REAL WORLD IS THE OPTIMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Whether
restoring a species' habitat, tending a school garden, or designing a
neighborhood recycling program, students learn more when their actions
have meaning and matter to someone else. In schooling for
sustainability, students connect with the natural world and human
communities through project-based learning, which inspires them to learn
in order to accomplish something they care about. They also learn that
they can make a difference.Seeing nature firsthand. Children
experience, explore, and understand nature's basic patterns — the web
of life, the cycles of matter, the flow of energy — through immersion in
the natural world. They encounter nature in the rich, messy ways in
which it exists, and understand nature's rhythms and the time scales at
which natural events occur, when they plant and harvest in the garden or
watch a creekside they have restored come back to life. Students who
learn nature's principles in gardens score better in science, reading
and writing, and independent thinking.

Buildings as teachers.
Designed and operated with imagination, a campus can act as both the
classroom and the lesson, as a laboratory for exploring solutions to
environmental problems, a model of sustainable practice, and an
inspiration to the surrounding community and other institutions.

School-community partnerships.
Students learn what their communities value by partnering with people
who were living there before they arrived and who will be there long
after they graduate. By working closely with community members, students
learn about community resources and how to use them.

4. SUSTAINABLE LIVING IS ROOTED IN A DEEP KNOWLEDGE OF PLACE

When
people acquire a deep knowledge of a particular place, they care about
what happens to the landscape, creatures, and people in it. When they
understand its ecology and diversity, the web of relationships it
supports, and the rhythm of its cycles, they develop appreciation and a
sense of kinship with their surroundings. Place-based education is
fundamental to schooling for sustainability. Places known deeply are
deeply loved, and well-loved places have the best chance to be protected
and preserved for future generations.

The world reveals itself in its fullness.
"A great deal of what passes for knowledge" in contemporary education,
says David Orr, "is little more than abstraction piled on abstraction,
disconnected from tangible experience, real problems, and the places
where we live and play." These actual places, he continues, "are
laboratories of diversity and complexity, mixing social functions and
natural processes." Even "common" settings — a schoolyard, a
residential neighborhood — can yield rich experiences.

Bridging disciplines and for looking at the world as people experience it.
A "Golden Gate" course at Marin Academy in California combines natural
and human history and literature, geology, history, and ecology, and
helps students discover what it means to be members of a biotic
community. Ninth-graders at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey read
letters written by Aldo Leopold when he was a student there, and then
trace the trails he followed.

Local answers to environmental problems.
Whether through buying locally, removing invasive species, or creating
decentralized energy systems, relocalization is becoming a powerful
strategy for sustainability. "What has served our species well in the
past could serve us well in the future if we only relinquish the modern
tendency to impose universal solutions upon the infinite variability of
both people and the planet. Local diversity lies at the heart of
humanity's biological and cultural success," write educators David
Gruenewald and Gregory Smith. Students practice this strategy when
finding solutions to issues on campus and in local communities.

Getting from here to there.
"I'm anxiously awaiting a good explanation why it's important for
second graders to know the order of the planets from Mercury to Pluto,"
writes Antioch New England professor and place-based education
researcher David Sobel. "Wouldn't it be more useful to develop a solid
understanding of the geography of the town the second grader lives in?"
A movement from close and familiar to far and strange, he notes,
mirrors the development of children's minds.

With a goal of nurturing students to become
ecoliterate, the Center for Ecoliteracy has identified five vital
practices that integrate emotional, social, and ecological intelligence.
They are described at greater length in our book, Ecoliterate: How Educators Are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence (Jossey-Bass, 2012), from which the excerpt below is taken.

We
work to inspire teachers to use a variety of learning opportunities
that help students consider and apply these practices in a diverse range
of contexts. These practices allow students to strengthen and extend
their capacity to live sustainably.

1. Developing Empathy for All Forms of Life
encourages students to expand their sense of compassion to other forms
of life. By shifting from our society's dominant mindset (which
considers humans to be separate from and superior to the rest of life on
Earth) to a view that recognizes humans as being members of the web of
life, students broaden their care and concern to include a more
inclusive network of relationships.

2. Embracing Sustainability as a Community Practice
emerges from knowing that organisms do not exist in isolation. The
quality of the web of relationships within any living community
determines its collective ability to survive and thrive. By learning
about the wondrous ways that plants, animals, and other living things
are interdependent, students are inspired to consider the role of
interconnectedness within their communities and see the value in
strengthening those relationships by thinking and acting cooperatively.

3. Making the Invisible Visible
assists students in recognizing the myriad effects of human behavior on
other people and the environment. The impacts of human behavior have
expanded exponentially in time, space, and magnitude, making the results
difficult if not impossible to understand fully. Using tools to help
make the invisible visible reveals the far-reaching implications of
human behavior and enables us to act in more life-affirming ways.

4. Anticipating Unintended Consequences
is a twofold challenge of predicting the potential implications of our
behaviors as best we can, while at the same time accepting that we
cannot foresee all possible cause-and-effect associations. Assuming that
the ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life, students can adopt
systems thinking and the “precautionary principle” as guidelines for
cultivating a way of living that defends rather than destroys the web of
life. Second, we build resiliency by supporting the capacity of natural
and social communities to rebound from unintended consequences.

5. Understanding How Nature Sustains Life
is imperative for students to cultivate a society that takes into
account future generations and other forms of life. Nature has
successfully supported life on Earth for billions of years. Therefore,
by examining the Earth's processes, we learn strategies that are
applicable to designing human endeavors.

SINGAPORE
(January 24, 2013) – Innovative planning, design and development
practices that emphasize a “people-first” focus can help ensure that
rapid urbanization does not compromise liveability and sustainability,
according to a new publication by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and
Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC).

The ten principles in the publication were
developed during two workshops hosted in 2012 by the CLC and ULI Asia
Pacific, bringing together 62 thought leaders, experts and practitioners
from different disciplines related to urban planning and development.
Discussions at the first workshop centred around the four case study
districts in Singapore that both organizations consider to be both
densely populated and highly liveable: the mixed-use downtown district
of Marina Bay; the commercial corridor of Orchard Road, and two new
public housing developments in Toa Payoh and Tampines. The ideas and
principles so generated were further developed, corroborated, and
condensed into ten principles.

Read the report.

In
the foreword to the publication, Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Singapore’s Minister
for National Development, points to the lasting benefits of building
cities for people. “The inexorable trend of urban population growth in
modern times is not likely to stop. Even for countries with no shortage
of land, the growth of their urban populations has confronted their
cities with constant challenges to the quality of their living
environment…For Singapore, these challenges have been compounded by the
limitations of its size as a small island,” he said. “Maintaining a good
quality, liveable high-density urban landscape in which all
Singaporeans can find and make a home is crucial to the survival of the
Singapore nation.”

“Expansive, rapid urbanization is adding
challenges to the business of building cities that are prosperous,
liveable, and able to withstand time and change,” notes ULI Chief
Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. “Through our work with the CLC,
we are aiming to demonstrate how well-planned design and development is
the foundation for a physical environment that is conducive to a
competitive economy, sustainable environment and a high quality of life.
Ultimately, cities are about what’s best for people, not buildings or
cars. The places that are built to reflect this reality will have a
competitive edge in our globalized economy.”

“Singapore is seen as
a high density, high liveability development model. We saw some
relevance of Singapore’s experience to others, particularly emerging
cities, many of whom are high density and want to raise the quality of
life for their people. We hope this joint publication will contribute in
some way towards people having a more optimistic view of living in high
density cities,” said Khoo Teng Chye, Executive Director, CLC.

Each
of the 10 principles in the publication reflects Singapore’s integrated
model of planning and development, which weaves together the physical,
economic, social and environmental aspects of urban living. The ten
principles are:

Plan for long-term growth and renewal
–A highly dense city usually does not have much choice but to make
efficient use of every square inch of its scarce land. Yet city planners
need to do this in a way that does not make the city feel cramped and
unliveable. A combination of long-term planning, responsive land
policies, development control and good design has enabled Singapore to
have dense developments that do not feel overly crowded, and, in fact,
are both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Embrace diversity, foster inclusiveness
– There is a need to ensure that diversity is not divisive,
particularly in densely populated cities where people live in close
proximity to one another. Density and diversity work in Singapore
because there has always been a concurrent focus on creating a sense of
inclusiveness through encouraging greater interaction.

Draw nature closer to people
– Blending nature into the city helps soften the hard edges of a highly
built up cityscape and provides the city dwellers pockets of respite
from the bustle of urban life. By adopting a strategy of pervasive
greenery and by transforming its parks and water bodies into lifestyle
spaces for community activities, Singapore integrated nature with its
dense developments. Nearly half of Singapore is now under green cover,
which is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also improves the air
quality and mitigates heat from the tropical sun.

Develop affordable, mixed-use neighbourhoods
– The ease of living in a compact neighbourhood that is relatively
self-contained can add to the pleasure of city living. With density, it
becomes more cost effective to provide common amenities. Neighbourhoods
in Singapore’s new towns have a mix of public and private developments
which are served with a full range of facilities that are easy to access
and generally affordable.

Make public spaces work harder
– Often, parcels of land that adjoin or surround the city’s
infrastructure are dormant, empty spaces. Singapore has sought to
maximize the potential of these spaces by unlocking them for commercial
and leisure activities, The idea is to make all space, including
infrastructural spaces, serve multiple uses and users.

Prioritise green transport and building options
– An overall reduction in energy consumption and dependence adds to
city sustainability. Singapore has adopted a resource-conscious growth
strategy that relies on planning, design and the use of low-energy
environmental systems for its buildings. It has also developed an
efficient public transport system and well-connected walkways to give
city dwellers transport alternatives to driving.

Relieve density with variety and add green boundaries
– A high-density city need not be all about closely packed high-rise
buildings. Singapore intersperses high-rise with low-rise buildings,
creating a skyline with more character and reducing the sense of being
in a crowded space.

Activate spaces for greater safety
– Having a sense of safety and security is an important quality-of-life
factor. As Singapore became denser, designs of high-rise public housing
estates were modified to improve the “visual access” to spaces so the
community can collectively be the “eyes on the street,” helping to keep
neighbourhoods safe.

Promote innovative and non-conventional solutions
– As a city gets more populated and built up, it starts facing
constraints on land and resources, and has to often look at
non-traditional solutions to get around the challenges. To ensure
sufficient water, Singapore developed reclaimed water under the brand
name NEWater-to drinking and industrial standards.

Forge “3P” (people, public, private) partnerships
– With land parcels in close proximity to one another, the effects of
development in one area are likely to be felt quickly and acutely in
neighbouring sites. The city government and all stakeholders need to
work together to ensure they are not taking actions that would reduce
the quality of life for others. URA launched the Singapore River ONE
partnership to get the various stakeholders to feel a stronger ownership
of Singapore River so that social and economic activity in the precinct
would be developed in a coordinated and sustainable manner.

“For
new cities that are forming and older cities that are redeveloping…the
ten principles can be a starting point for city planners, developers and
dwellers to trigger ideas about how they want their city to evolve and
be shaped,” states the publication. “Creating a highly dense yet
liveable city, while not always easy, is very possible.”

NOTE TO EDITORS AND REPORTERS: The 10 Principles for Liveable High Density Cities: Lessons from Singapore report is now available for download.

This resource is dedicated to the Earth in honor of the United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012. Rio+20 is a reference to the 20 years
that have passed since the first UN Conference on Environment and
Development in Rio in 1992.

LVE leaders around the world are concerned about our Earth and her
ocean. We would like to offer educators, parents and youth
facilitators around the world these Living Green Values materials with
the hope that the stories and activities will be useful to you in
educating children and young adults, families and communities to
internalize the importance of living sustainable lives and caring for
our planet. May we all learn to live in harmony with nature and with
respect and care for all.

Living Green Values Activities
for Children and Young Adults

Download this bookDownload this cover
These Living Green Values activities are intended to help
young people be more aware of the importance of taking care of the
Earth and her resources. Part of that process is awakening love for
nature and her creatures and learning about specific ways that they can
help be a friend to the Earth.
The Activities for Children 3 – 7 include stories, a
visualization and activities. The “Rosa, David and a Tern” stories are
included as well as
“A Tap that Cried”.
In the Activities for Children 8 – 14 and Activities for Young
Adults, specific scientific information is included about the harmful
affects of human actions on the ocean, rivers, animals, air and ground —
and on human beings themselves. This information is first presented
through a series of stories called the “Green Values Club”. The nine
stories weave in the values of love and respect, camaraderie and
helping others, and the understanding that each one of us can make a
difference. Cognitive understanding of the effects of one action is
amplified through an explanation of systems thinking and students
charting effects with flow charts and mind maps. Educators can help
empower students to take positive action and do service-learning
projects through the activity ideas presented. Please add your own
ideas and help them do what is most needed in the local community. A
relaxation/focusing exercise is included at the end of many lessons to
help the students feel safe and peaceful. Further activities and
relaxation/focusing exercises can be found in the Living Values
Activities books.
Enjoy doing the activities with the students! If you wish, we
will be happy to post your activities and news of your outcome in our
newsletter or the international website.
Thank you for helping take care of our Earth.
Living Green Values

Rosa, David and the Tern
A storybook for three- to seven-year olds
For parents and their children

Download this bookDownload this cover
“Rosa, David and the Tern” contains three chapters about two young
children who help free a little Tern. Their happiness at helping turns
to amazement, discovery, action and joy as the Tern and a Blue Heron
speak to them on behalf of the Earth. A delightful tale which helps
children explore how they can help care for and respect the Earth, her
ocean and its creatures.
Living Green Values

The Green Values Club
A book for young people eight to eighteen!

Download this bookDownload this cover
The “Green Values Club” contains nine chapters. The story begins as
Katie and George worry about their father not returning the night
before. As they head out in a dinghy with their mother, they find him
and his partner trying to free a whale caught in a net. Their adventure
unfolds at the beach, school and city council as they learn with their
friends more about the Earth, her ocean and how humans have affected
the planet. The values of love and respect, camaraderie and helping
others are evident in the story as is the message and reality that each
one of us can make a difference.

GMO Infographics

"The Truth About Biotechnology"
Download the entire "Truth about Biotechnology" infographic here

"What Do You Know About GMOs?"
DOWNLOAD the entire "What Do You Know About GMOs?" infographic here

"What on Earth are GMOs?"
DOWNLOAD the entire "What on Earth are GMOs ?" infographic here.

NOTE TO EDUCATORS:
Your students, no doubt, are familiar with OMG! But what about GMO?

GMOs
are genetically modified organisms in which the genetic material or DNA
has been altered in a way that doesn’t occur naturally. GMOs seem to be
a hotly debated topic around the world. Some people claim GM seeds
yield higher agricultural productivity and ensure food security.
Others maintain these seeds are unsafe to eat and destroy other seeds
and crops. On the November 2012 ballot, a grassroots coalition of
California citizens proposed an initiative to require the labeling of
foods made from genetically modified organisms. The initiative failed,
but proponents are looking to other states to take up their cause.

What do your students know about GMOs? Do they think they’re good or bad? Why do we have them at all?

We found three infographics that represent different points of view on GMOs.

With your students, study the three infographics. For each one, ask:

Look at the colors used and how the facts are displayed. What is the
feeling or tone of the infographics? What else do you notice?

What is the theme and purpose of the infographic?

What is the position and perspective on GMOs?

Who created the infographic? What do you know about this
organization? Does knowing this influence how you interpret or view the
chart? TIP: Look at the fine print at the bottom of the infographic.

After your students have analyzed this set of infographics, poll
them on which infographic they found most influential (or not). Did
their views on GMOs change?

REDD+
has become an important component in the discussions on climate change
and forest governance, but there is further need to understand the
linkages with local governance and the challenges for its
implementation. This joint report will serve as a useful reference for
policymakers, professionals and practitioners as they work to promote
REDD+ in ways that tackle climate change and biodiversity loss but also
respect concerns and listen to the voice of local stakeholders.

Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs)
were developed as sites for participatory learning and action within
the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
(DESD), opening up more collaborative and inclusive learning spaces
towards more just and sustainable ways of life now and in the future.
Some of the contours of these emergent education processes of
collaborative learning-to-change as they relate to traditional knowledge
(TK) and biodiversity are developing in many RCE contexts today. The
Education for Sustainable Development Programme at UNU-IAS has worked
with RCEs worldwide to create a new publication showcasing a series of
case studies in this regard.

To
build a socially just economy and a more sustainable society, our
consumption and production systems must become more sustainable — not
only in terms of market growth and resilience, but also in terms of
productive non-market relations, ecosystem health, quality of life and
the well-being of all involved. The Education for Sustainable
Development programme at UNU-IAS has published a report of case studies,
showcasing groundbreaking education for sustainable development (ESD)
initiatives that address some of the greatest challenges we face in
moving to more sustainable consumption and production systems. They stem
from the work of the Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE).

Biofuel
production and use in Africa have been linked to numerous environmental
and socio-economic impacts. Whether these impacts are positive or
negative depends on a multitude of factors such as the feedstock, the
environmental/socio-economic context of biofuel production, and the
policy instruments in place during biofuel production, use and trade.
This report discusses a wide array of these impacts, as they relate to
jatropha biodiesel and sugarcane ethanol in Africa. A major challenge
for obtaining a comprehensive picture of biofuel tradeoffs is the fact
that the biofuel literature is multidisciplinary and rapidly expanding.
This report employs the ecosystem services framework developed during
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), as a means of synthesizing the
available evidence about biofuel impacts and identifying the main
trade-offs associated with biofuels in Africa.

Healthy
ecosystems and biodiversity are sources of various services that
nurture life and enhance human well-being. While the relevance of
biodiversity to mainstream health is clear, as seen in commercial use of
biological resources by pharmaceuticals, their relevance to the health
care of people in insufficiently connected and economically
disadvantaged regions of the world can be considered to be much more
profound. These regions are rich in resources, but they lack in
sufficient public helth care infrastructure and personnel. While there
are several inititatives at the local level that exemplify good practice
in achieving both sustainable use of natural resources for traditional
medical purposes, as well as accessibility for marginal and local
communities. However, such good practices are still restricted to
pockets of project activity.

The interlinkages between biodiversity
and health are well recognized. However, the need and potential of
strengthening traditional understanding and practices related to health
at the community level is an area that has not been sufficiently
addressed in planning processes. Unlike mainstream health interventions,
this involves a comprehensive assessment of various contributing
factors to health, including biological resources, knowledge and human
resources, socio-cultural resources and related policy processes. It
involves attention to medicinal plants and faunal products, dietary and
nutritional aspects, access to these resources, ecosystem integrity,
landscape values, rights to practitioners to practice, opportunities for
livelihood enhancement among others.

When
considering climate change, indigenous peoples and marginalized
populations warrant particular attention. Impacts on their territories
and communities are anticipated to be both early and severe due to their
location in vulnerable environments. There is therefore a need to
understand the specific vulnerabilities, adaptation capacities and
longer-term aspirations of indigenous peoples and marginalized
communities the world over. This publication draws the attention of
Authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth
Assessment Report and climate policymakers to the rapidly growing
scientific literature on the contributions of indigenous and traditional
knowledge to understanding climate change vulnerability, resilience and
adaptation.

Over
the last decade, researchers at UNU have continued to focus on and
identify practical ways of measuring well-being, both at macro-planning
scales and at the community level, with particular focus on the
Capability Approach, given its paradigmatic status. UNU has also
continued to actively support the creation of development assessment
methods that provide a more comprehensive recognition of on-the-ground
realities, and it is keen to strengthen its engagement in this regard.
This position paper revists discourses on well-being and refocuses on
what really matters to well-being.

Socio-ecological
production landscapes (SEPLs), if managed effectively, can provide a
wide range of ecosystem services that help contribute to the livelihoods
and well-being of local communities, and the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals and relevant national development policies.
Drawing insights from a variety of case studies, this report examines
the historical and political contexts in which SEPLs have evolved as
well as the challenges and opportunities in promoting SEPLs for the
green economy.

The challenges for creating a greener economy
and the institutional framework for sustainable development pass
necessarily, or mostly, through cities, as they concentrate a large and
growing part of the world’s economy and population, as well as
decision-making power. With the processes of urbanization and
rural-urban transformation, the economy in cities, especially in cities
of developing countries, has been shifting from traditional artisanal
crafts and markets to more modern industry and service sectors. The
concentration of people, resources, knowledge, political power and
economic activities in urban areas, if properly managed, can provide
economies of scale and efficiency gains that lower the use of resources
and energy, and thereby promote doing more with less, while offering
fair outcomes to the most vulnerable people and the environment. In this
sense, transitioning from the traditional “brown” economy to a greener
economy could be achieved by reducing resource and energy consumption in
cities through improving the key components of the urban economic
process.

Cities
benefit in a myriad of ways from the biodiversity within and outside
their boundaries. Enjoying a variety of tasty foods in our meals or
obtaining spiritual comfort form contemplating a landscape are just some
examples of the benefits urban residents obtain from ecosystems.
However, urbanization is contributing to biodiversity loss worldwide,
and many city dwellers lack access to its benefits. In a world becoming
rapidly urban, cities must address the biodiversity challenge for the
well-being of their residents and the sustainability of the planet.

This policy document, jointly published by the
International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the United Nations
University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), sets out the
specific actions that policymakers, forest managers and other
stakeholders should take to improve biodiversity conservation in forests
used for the production of forest goods and services. On the ground,
ITTO has funded the establishment and/or management of a number of
transboundary conservation reserves in its member countries. What
lessons can be learned from those projects on transboundary
conservation? In order to answer this question, ITTO and UNU-IAS started
a partnership to analyze and present lessons from these projects.

While enhancing human well-being is a policy objective, defining
various components that lead to human well-being vary at the macro level
and at the level of local communities. This dichotomy in perspectives,
due to differences in cultural norms and worldviews between the two
levels, leads to poor implementation of policy activities. This policy
brief examines these challenges in the context of establishment of
bio-enterprises to meet development priorities. UNU-IAS 2010, A4, 4 pages Download report as a .pdf file (277 KB)

This report presents a synthesis and integration of the findings from the Japan Satoyama Satoumi Assessment
(JSSA) as a summary for decision makers. The JSSA is a study of the
interaction between humans and terrestrial-aquatic ecosystems ( satoyama ) and marine-coastal ecosystems ( satoumi )
in Japan. The study analyses changes which have occurred in these
ecosystems over the last 50 years and identifies plausible alternative
futures of those landscapes in the year 2050 taking into account various
drivers such as governmental and economic policy, climate change,
technology, and socio-behavioural responses. Recommendations for
decision makers based on the study’s findings are also included in the
report.

Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira,
Osman Balaban, Christopher Doll, Raquel Moreno-Penaranda, Alexandros
Gasparatos, Deljana Iossifova, and Aki Suwa Understanding
how cities can create better governance mechanisms to effectively help
in the preservation of the biodiversity within and beyond the city
boundaries is the key to implement the directives of the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD). This report argues the need to study the
conceptual underpinnings of the relationships among city, governance,
and biodiversity to create the basis for policies at the global,
national, and local level, as well as provide some practical insights on
the way to move the biodiversity agenda in cities forward.

Southeast Asia hosts diverse biological resources and cultural milieus
that are under different degrees of stress from various factors. This
report highlights the key underlying economic, political, and natural
factors that contribute to biodiversity decline in the region, and
provides specific policy directions that could help address the decline.
UNU-IAS/2010/No. 2 ISBN 978-92-808-4521-1 October 2010, 50 pages Download report as a .pdf file (809 KB)

Ecosystem
services are benefits people obtain from ecosystems. In this report,
the ecosystem services concept is used to rationalise the existing
evidence about biofuels' impact on ecosystems. It is shown that biofuels
can provide a number of ecosystem services (e.g. fuel, climate
regulation) while compromising others (e.g. food, freshwater services).
At the same time, it is also shown why biofuel expansion is currently
being considered as one of the main emerging threats to biodiversity,
particularly in highly biodiverse areas such as in Indonesia and Brazil.
A combination of response options such as designer landscapes, Payment
for Ecosystem Services (PES), Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation
and Degradation (REDD), and biofuel certification will have to be put in
place to minimise the negative impacts of biofuel expansion on
ecosystem services and biodiversity.

This report explores the role of traditional marine resources
management in meeting both the goals of communities and those of
national and international conservation strategies. Specifically, it
looks at how traditional practices are applied in various Pacific Island
countries, how concepts such as the ecosystem approach and adaptive
management are incorporated, whether traditional marine managed areas
(MMAs) are recognised by national law, and how and whether they are seen
to contribute to national and international protected areas and
conservation targets. The report also reflects on the issue of marine
genetic resources, and access to and benefit sharing of these resources.

The
six reports in Japanese as a series of “Experiences and Lessons from
Clusters” present the findings of each cluster and sub-cluster
assessment of the Japan Satoyama Satoumi Assessment (JSSA). The JSSA, a study of the interaction between humans and terrestrial-aquatic ecosystems ( satoyama ) and marine-coastal ecosystems ( satoumi )
in Japan, was undertaken between 2007-2010 in five major “clusters”
throughout Japan, with the goal of encompassing different geographical,
climatic, and political characteristics. These clusters include:
Hokkaido Cluster, Tohoku Cluster, Hokushinetsu Cluster, Kanto-chubu
Cluster, and Western Japan Cluster. The Western Japan Cluster involves a
sub-cluster that focuses on Seto Inland Sea as satoumi in addition to the general assessment of the satoyama in the whole region.

The third objective of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) to ensure “ the
fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the
utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to
genetic resources...” has taken centre stage now with negotiations
in full swing to develop an international regime on Access and Benefit
Sharing (ABS) by the year 2010. While some progress has been achieved on
negotiations related to access regulations, discussions are still
evolving as countries are found to be cautious to implement measures
related to benefit sharing.

By Miguel Esteban, Christian Webersik, David Leary and Dexter Thompson-Pomeroy

This report offers three innovative solutions in responding to climate
change, namely nanotechnology, ocean energy and forestry. It goes beyond
the technological, biological and procedural aspects of these solutions
by critically assessing the opportunities and challenges that each type
of innovation presents. This report addresses the question why these
innovations - despite their large potential to reduce emissions, ocean
energy alone could cover the world's electricity needs - have not yet
reached the stage of mass commercialization.

Emerging and Re-emerging Issues in International Law and Policy in the Polar Regions

Written
and edited by David Leary and draws upon edited material by symposium
Rapporteurs Antje Neumann, Alena Ingvarsdóttir, Kári á Rógvi MP and
Elisa Burchert

Recommendations contained in this report address the following key
issues: climate change; human rights challenges; challenges of new
commercial activities in the Polar Regions; challenges posed by shipping
and newly opening sea lanes; threats to specific species and
assemblages of species; environmental governance in the Polar Regions;
and the inadequate implementation of existing international law and
domestic laws. The report also contains a series of
recommendations on studies that should be undertaken in the immediate
and near term future to better equip governments and policy makers to
respond to these emerging issues.

The Report highlights the links between the CBD 2010 targets and the
MDG target on reducing biodiversity loss; it also identifies the
challenges being faced by countries in responding to these targets from
different perspectives and provides some policy options for
consideration by MDG practitioners.

This is a
short guide for Indigenous land managers and those who work with
Indigenous communities to the phenomenon of climate change, and to ‘market ’ and financial mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, often referred to as the ‘carbon market’, ‘emissions trading’ and/or ‘carbon financing ’.
This guide is intended as a first edition - it is hoped that future
editions will include even more case studies of Indigenous involvement
with the carbon market and will focus on particular geographical
regions. As such, comments, case studies and more information would be
most welcome - please contact ingrid@iisd.org .

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations
University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) with the support of
the Government of Ireland have carried out case studies on access to
genetic resources and benefit‑sharing (ABS) arrangements in four African
countries namely Botswana, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia. These studies
exemplify the implementation of existing ABS arrangements and mechanisms
in the context of the Bonn Guidelines adopted by the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its sixth meeting,
in April 2002.

Currently, one of the most critical issues for Africa is food security.
At the same time, environmental sustainability is being lost. In
addition, human-induced climate change threatens agricultural
productivity. This report provides an overview of some of the
environmental issues facing Africa and examines the role of science and
technology cooperation in meeting these challenges. An environmental
performance country analysis is used to identify areas of best practice,
as well as areas of action.

Written by Brendan Tobin, Geoff Burton, and Jose Carlos Fernandez-Ugalde

Proposals have been made for a variety of certification systems to act
as the basis for an international system of documentation to provide
evidence of PIC and MAT relating to access and use of genetic resources
and traditional knowledge. This study provides a comparative analysis of
all four existing proposals and examines the challenges for development
of a practical, feasible and cost effective certificate system.

The UNU-IAS Report Bioprospecting in the Arctic examines
the extent and nature of bioprospecting in the Arctic. It argues that
there is significant interest in the biotechnology potential of Arctic
biodiversity. In many cases this potential has moved beyond the research
of the academic community to commercialisation by industry. In fact
given the number of companies involved in research on or the actual
exploitation of biotechnology based on Arctic genetic resources (fourty
three companies in total) one clear conclusion is that this industry, in
various forms, is well established. This conclusion is supported by the
existence of more than thirty-one patents or patent applications based
on Arctic genetic resources.

The purpose of this Assessment, undertaken by UNU-IAS from 2004 - 2007,
was to provide a neutral, independent and objective assessment of the
various internationally funded training programmes for biosafety and
biotechnology, especially to the extent that it is necessary for
biosafety, in the developing world. This Assessment does not advocate
the use, or avoidance, of modern biotechnology. Rather it seeks to
examine whether capacity building activities are delivering to
developing countries the capacity to make and implement choices about
biosafety and biotechnology.

A
comprehensive (global review) of NBSAPs' implementation is now timely
given that it has been 15 years since the CBD's obligations came into
force. However, until such a global review is undertaken, regional
reviews and national experiences provide some lessons which can guide
further action. This publication advocates the development of
sub-national biodiversity action plans (BSAPs) as a planning solution to
the weaknesses of a large national planning and implementation process.

This report was prepared by: Chamundeeswari Kuppuswamy, Darryl Macer, Mihaela Serbulea and Brendan Tobin Human
Cloning has been one of the most emotive and divisive issue to face UN
negotiators and the international community in recent years. This report
examines how, that despite a widespread consensus amongs nations that
it is desireable to ban reproductive cloning, efforts to negotiate an
international convention ground to a halt due to fundamental divisions
regarding so-called research or therapeutic cloning. Firm positions on
both sides of the debate led to the compromise position of a non-binding
UN Declaration on Cloning.

This
report reviews three renewable energy developments that have taken
place in developing countries without significant foreign investment. It
shows that renewable energy planning should be approached strategically
by developing countries, with specific technological strategies
grounded in national industrial capacity and energy resources.

Implementing the Ecosystem Approach in Open Ocean and Deep
Sea Environments: An Analysis of Stakeholders, their Interests and
Existing Approaches

This report provides a first step towards a
comprehensive survey and dialogue on mapping stakeholders’ interests in
open-ocean and deep sea environments for improved conservation,
sustainable use and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from ocean
spaces and their resources.

This report examines the debate on the evolution of
the precautionary principle in the context of the WTO. It clarifies
proposals to enhance the incorporation of this principle in the rules of
the multilateral trading system and addresses the tensions between the
WTO and multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs). The report
analyses how the WTO is responding to the challenges posed by its Member
States in raising the precautionary principle before dispute panels.

Revisiting Women's Participation in Science and Technology: Emerging Challenges and Agenda for Reform

Women’s involvement in science and technology
encounters bias in regard to disciplines and academic or professional
level of responsibility. This report explores how women’s role in
advancing and using science and technology for society could be
improved, and how science and technology impact women.

This report shows the distinction between
environmental conditions among developing cities in the Asia Pacific and
those of industrialized countries, using the theory of "time space
telescoping". This hypothesis suggests that due to shifts in the driving
forces of change, environmental challenges in developing cities are
occurring sooner, rising faster, and emerging more simulatneously than
in developed cities.

Water and Sanitation in an Urban Poor Settlement: A Case Study of Bauniabad, Bangladesh
This report was prepared based on the results of the case study
conducted by the UNU-IAS and the Environment and Population Research
Centre (EPRC) in Bangladesh between 2002 and 2004.
Yokohama, UNU-IAS, 2005, 75 pages View Report as PDF (File size 2.3 MB)

Food and Nutrition Biotechnology Albert Sasson

Food and Nutrition Biotechnology: Current Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions

This report on biotechnology, food and nutrition is a
consolidation of knowledge in potentials, opportunities and
developmental processes in applying biotechnology for improvements in
human nutrition.

Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology: Current Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions

This report discusses the so-called 'white'
biotechnology, or industrial and environmental biotechnology, a broad
and expanding field that includes making enzymes with a variety of
industrial uses that include the manufacture of bioplastics and biofuels
and using micro-organisms and plants for the treatment of wastes and
abatement of pollution.

This report compiles concept papers, case studies,
conference papers and speeches to convey the challenges of education for
sustainable development (ESD) and ambitions of the UN Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development. It highlights the roles of
institutions and higher education in implementing ESD and presents case
studies on the concept of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD (RCE).

This report provides a comprehensive review of the
scientific, legal and policy issues involved in deep seabed
bioprospecting. It examines the current scientific and commercial
explorations occurring in the deep seabed, and offers an in-depth
analysis of the relevant legal instruments, including the gaps in these
laws.

Promoting Enfranchisement: Toward inclusion and influence in sustainable development governance

Jessica Green This
report synthesizes research about disenfranchisement conducted over the
past year and a half by the UNU-IAS, together with the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). It analyzes the
obstacles facing both state and non-state actors from developing nations
in their efforts to participate in the policy-making process, and
proposes concrete measures to address this problem.

Developing Countries and Civil Society in International Governance for Sustainable Development: An Agenda for Research

This report outlines the research agenda for the Engaging the Disenfranchised Project .
It examines the assumption that improving the participation of these
actors from civil society and developing nations is essential to
promoting the goals of sustainable development, and also considers how
individual capacities, rules and norms affect the engagement of these
disenfranchised actors.

This report, emerging from the Agriculture for Peace project
at UNU/IAS, attempts to examine linkages of important socio-economic
concepts of peace and answer the broader question of whether dynamic
agricultural development can have an impact on strengthening peace in
conflict-prone countries.

Capacity Development on Access to Genetic Resources, Benefit-Sharing, and Biosafety in Central Asia and Mongolia

An updated version of a previous report presenting
regional and national overviews on the state of biodiversity, access to
genetic resources and benefit-sharing legislation, and the protection of
traditional knowledge in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The Role of Registers and Databases in the Protection of Traditional Knowledge

A Comparative Analysis

This report provides an analysis of a number of case
studies of existing databases and registers that have been developed to
document traditional knowledge, identifying their effectiveness,
possibilities and limitations for securing the protection of traditional
knowledge.

Options
for Developing Measures in User Countries to Implement the Access and
Benefit-Sharing Provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(2nd edition)

The second edition of a previously published report,
which contains an entirely new chapter on disclosure or origin
requirements in patent applications procedures. It also examines
voluntary codes of conduct and certification schemes, import and
transport regulation, access to justice, and the case for establishment
of international standardised system of documentation for tracing gene
flows.

In the last fifteen years, the legal and policy
framework for biodiversity research and prospecting and the way genetic
resources are viewed, exchanged and used has been transformed while
protected area managers are confronted with access to genetic resources
and benefit-sharing issues on top of a multitude of other challenges
they are facing. This report aims to assist protected area managers and
policy makers in addressing this rapidly evolving area.

This report answers the need for more information on
the relation of biological prospecting in Antarctica to various
international treaties responsible for governing bioprospecting
activities; especially the Antarctic Treaty.

Capacity Development on Access to Genetic Resources, Benefit-Sharing, and Biosafety in Central Asia and Mongolia

A report presenting regional and national overviews
of the state of biodiversity, access to genetic resources and
benefit-sharing legislation, and the protection of traditional knowledge
in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.

Endeavours from Rio to Johannesburg
Summarises the findings of the UNU/IAS project on the Sustainable Global Future , and addresses the challenges faced by the world in the goal to achieve global sustainability on every level.
Tokyo, UNU/IAS, 2002, 48 pages. View Report as PDF (File Size 272k)

International Sustainable Development Governance

The Question of Reform: Key Issues and Proposals Final Report
UNU/IAS Report submitted to the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in August 2002.
Tokyo, UNU/IAS, 2002, 48 pages View Report as PDF File (File Size 432k)

UNU Report | Improving the Management of Sustainable Development

Towards a New Framework for Large Developing Countries: China, India, and Indonesia
UNU Report submitted to the Fourth Global PrepCom to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Bali in May 2002.
Tokyo, UNU/IAS, 2002, 36 pages. View Report as PDF File (File Size 836k)

UNU Report | International Environmental Governance

The Question of Reform: Key Issues and Proposals Preliminary Findings
UNU Report submitted to the Third Global PrepCom to the World Summit
on Sustainable Development, held in New York in March 2002.
Tokyo, UNU/IAS, 2002, 40 pages View Report as PDF File (File Size 656k)

UNU Report to the Second Preparatory Session for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development

28 January – 8 February 2002, New York, USA Effective Pathways to Sustainable Development

UNU Report submitted to the Second Preparatory
Committee Meeting in New York in the lead up to the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD), outlining UNU's activities in
implementing Agenda 21 as well as recommendations for consideration in
WSSD.

Green GDP Estimates in China, Indonesia, and Japan: An Application of the UN Environmental and Economic Accounting System Takahiro Akita and Yoichi Nakamura (eds)

Within
a framework illustrating interactions betwen the economy and the
environment, this report presents estimates for a System for Integrated
Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) and environmentally
adjusted domestic product (Green GDP) for China, Indonesia and Japan.

This report was produced from over thirty academic
papers, the deliberations of the first international conference on
Inter–linkages, and from analysis done by a core group of contributors
from UNU/IAS and UNU faculty folllowing the conference. It focuses on
exploring the potential for a more integrated approach to environmental
treaty making and environmental management.

Global Climate Governance: Inter-Linkages between the Kyoto Protocol and other Multilateral Regimes

Final Report

Consolidates the research presented in two previous
reports on Global Climate Governance which identified issues related to
potential synergies and incompatibilities between the Kyoto Protocol and
other multilateral regimes, and explored the practical implications of
the key issues.

Tokyo, UNU, GEIC, UNU/IAS, 1999, 76 pages.

Global
Climate Governance: Scenarios and Options on the Inter-Linkages between
the Kyoto Protocol and other Multilateral Regimes

Report Part 2
Builds on the Global Climate Governance Report Part 1 by creating
fictitious scenarios that highlight some of the difficulties that may be
encountered once the Kyoto Protocol flexibility mechanisms become
operational, and to explore possible solutions to the problems in
implementation.
Tokyo, UNU, GEIC and UNU/IAS, 1999, 42 pages. View Report as PDF (File Size 930 KB)

Global Climate Governance: A Report on the Inter-linkages between the Kyoto Protocol and other Multilateral Regimes

Report Part 1

Based on nine commissioned papers by academics and
experts in the field of Global Climate Governance, this report takes
into account the linkages between the Kyoto Protocol and other
international regimes.

Global Climate Governance: Inter-linkages between the Kyoto Protocol and other Multilateral Regimes

Commissioned Essays & Disscussion Papers

Report presented during a Special Session at COP4 in
Buenos Aires; discusses inter-linkages between the climate change regime
and other relevant multilateral regimes in the context of international
law and policy.